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EDI 990: Response to a Load Tender

A carrier’s acceptance or decline of a shipper’s request to move a load. Carrier to shipper. This page covers what the 990 is for, the segments you meet when you open one, the documents it travels with, where it tends to go wrong, and how it moves over AS2 into your systems on Files.com, which receives, parses, validates, and routes it as configuration.

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What The 990 Is For

The 990 answers a 204 Motor Carrier Load Tender. The shipper tenders a load; the carrier replies with a 990 accepting or declining it, referencing the shipment identification from the tender. Shippers with several carriers use the 990 to run tender waterfalls automatically: if the first carrier declines within the window, the load goes to the next.

It is small and time-critical. A 990 that arrives after the tender window closes is treated as a decline, and a load with no 990 at all is escalated to a person.

The Segments You Meet First

In document order, the segments that carry the 990's meaning. A partner's implementation guide says which are required and which fields each must hold.

B1

Beginning segment for booking or pick-up/delivery: the carrier code, the shipment identification number, the date, and the reservation action code (accept or decline).

N9

Reference identification tying the response to the tender.

K1

Remarks, such as a reason for declining.

Where It Goes Wrong

Late responses and ambiguous action codes. A carrier that accepts a tender it then cannot cover creates a service failure the 990 was supposed to prevent.

The Documents It Travels With

The 990 rarely moves alone. These are the documents that precede, answer, or settle it.

204 · Motor Carrier Load Tender

Travels with this document in the same exchange.

214 · Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message

A carrier’s status update on a shipment in transit: picked up, in transit, out for delivery, delivered.

See The 214

210 · Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice

A trucking carrier’s invoice for a shipment, with the freight details the charges are based on.

See The 210

How The 990 Moves On Files.com

A partner sends the 990 over AS2, SFTP, or FTPS, and it lands in that partner’s inbox folder on Files.com with the transport receipt recorded. From there it is a workflow, not a project: TransformScript parses the X12 natively into the JSON, CSV, or XML your ERP or WMS reads, content validation flags a document whose contents are wrong before anything ingests it, and an automation routes the result to the system and the people who act on it.

Outbound is the mirror image. Your system exports its record, TransformScript builds the 990 the partner’s guide specifies, and the file dropped in the partner’s outbox goes out over AS2 with automatic retries until the MDN confirms delivery. Every transmission in both directions is in the audit log, and delivery monitoring alerts when a 990 that was due never arrives. The full picture is on the EDI software page.

EDI 990 Questions

What teams ask about the 990 and how it moves on Files.com.

An EDI 990 is the X12 Response to a Load Tender. A carrier sends it to accept or decline a shipper’s 204 load tender, referencing the shipment identification, within the window the shipper allows.

Yes. Files.com is a standards-compliant RFC 4130 AS2 endpoint, and a 990 sent by a trading partner lands in that partner’s inbox folder with a signed MDN receipt returned to the sender. Partners who exchange over SFTP or FTPS connect to the same platform and the document lands in the same place.

Yes. TransformScript parses the X12 990 natively and writes the JSON, CSV, or XML your systems ingest, as a step in the workflow that fires when the document arrives. Outbound, the same engine builds a 990 from your system’s export and drops it in the partner’s outbox for delivery.

Exchange The 990 Without The Legacy Stack

Start the 7-day trial, turn AS2 on, and exchange certificates with your partner. The 990 lands in their folder, parses into the record your system reads, and every transmission carries a signed receipt.

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